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Mankind, by the perverse depravity of their nature, esteem that which they have most desired as of no value the moment it is possessed, and torment themselves with fruitless wishes for that which is beyond their reach.

Francois Fenelon

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Francois Fenelon
Age: 63 †
Born: 1651
Born: August 6
Died: 1715
Died: January 7
Catholic Priest
Clergyman
Cleric
Philosopher
Poet
Theologian
Writer
François de Salignac de La Mothe- Fénelon
Fénelon
Phenelon
Franz von Fenelon
Francis Fenelon
abbé de Fénélon
François Fénelon
François de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon
Wish
Possessed
Moments
Esteem
Nature
Reach
Fruitless
Value
Depravity
Mankind
Perverse
Beyond
Desired
Values
Torment
Moment
Wishes

More quotes by Francois Fenelon

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Genuine good taste consists in saying much in few words, in choosing among our thoughts, in having order and arrangement in what we say, and in speaking with composure.
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A cross borne in simplicity, without the interference of self-love to augment it, is only half a cross. Suffering in this simplicity of love, we are not only happy in spile of the cross, but because of it for love is pleased in suffering for the Well Beloved, and the cross which forms us into His image is a consoling bond of love.
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We are not to choose the manner in which our blessings shall be bestowed.
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It is this unquiet self-love that renders us so sensitive. The sick man, who sleeps ill, thinks the night long. We exaggerate, from cowardice, all the evils which we encounter they are great, but our sensibility increases them. The true way to bear them is to yield ourselves up with confidence to God.
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Speak, move, act in peace, as if you were in prayer. In truth, this is prayer.
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The great point is to renounce your own wisdom by simplicity of walk, and to be ready to give up the favor, esteem, and approbation of every one, whenever the path in which God leads you passes that way.
Francois Fenelon
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Despondency is not a state of humility on the contrary, it is the vexation and despair of a cowardly pride--nothing is worse whether we stumble or whether we fall, we must only think of rising again and going on in our course.
Francois Fenelon
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I would have every minister of the gospel address his audience with the zeal of a friend, with the generous energy of a father, and with the exuberant affection of a mother.
Francois Fenelon
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There is but one way in which God should be loved, and that is to take no step except with Him and for Him, and to follow with a generous self-abandonment every thing which He requires.
Francois Fenelon
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Discouragement is simply the despair of wounded self-love.
Francois Fenelon
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Above all, live in the present moment and God will give you all the grace you need.
Francois Fenelon
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Listen less to your own thoughts and more to God's thoughts.
Francois Fenelon
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Nothing will make us so charitable and tender to the faults of others, as, by self-examination, thoroughly to know our own.
Francois Fenelon
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Pity enlarges the heart.
Francois Fenelon
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Simplicity is that grace which frees the soul from all unnecessary reflections upon itself.
Francois Fenelon
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The greatest of all crosses is self. If we die in part every day, we shall have but little to do on the last. These little daily deaths will destroy the power of the final dying.
Francois Fenelon
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Time spent in prayer is never wasted.
Francois Fenelon
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Pure love is in the will alone it is no sentimental love, for the imagination has no part in it it loves, if we may so express it, without feeling, as faith believes without seeing.
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Nothing marks so much the solid advancement of a soul, as the view of one's wretchedness without anxiety and without discouragement.
Francois Fenelon
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The realization of God's presence is the one sovereign remedy against temptation.
Francois Fenelon